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Admin API

The admin API is a private API used to manage a running Transiter instance. It should generally be inaccessible from the internet as the API can be used to e.g. delete all of the transit systems that are installed.

Endpoints

Get the config for a system

GET /systems/<system_id>/config

Request: GetSystemConfigRequest

Request payload for the get system config endpoint.

Field Type Description
system_id string ID of the system whose config is to be retrieved.

Response: SystemConfig

Install or update a system

PUT /systems/<system_id>

Installs or updates the system based on the configuration provided in the request payload. If the system does not exist an install is performed; otherwise the system is updated.

This is an asynchronous operation. The system configuration is validated before the request finishes but database and feed updates are performed asynchronously. The status of the operation can be determined by polling the GetSystem endpoint and inspecting the status field of the system.

Request: InstallOrUpdateSystemRequest

Request payload for the install or update system endpoint.

Field Type Description
system_id string ID of the system to install or update.
system_config SystemConfig Config for the system, in the form or a protobuf message.
yaml_config YamlConfig Config for the system, in the form of a YAML file.
install_only bool If true, do not perform an update if the system already exists.

Response: InstallOrUpdateSystemReply

Response payload for the install of update system endpoint.

Field Type Description
system_id string ID of the system that was installed.
system_config SystemConfig System configuration that was used for the install. If the configuration was provided as a YAML file or a YAML template, the value here represents the fully parsed and expanded configuration.

Delete a system

DELETE /systems/<system_id>

Deletes the specified system.

Request: DeleteSystemRequest

Request payload for the delete system endpoint.

Field Type Description
system_id string ID of the system to delete.

Response: DeleteSystemReply

Response payload for the delete system endpoint.

No fields.

Update a feed

POST /systems/<system_id>/feeds/<feed_id>

Triggers a feed update for the specified feed.

Request: UpdateFeedRequest

Request payload for the update feed endpoint.

Field Type Description
system_id string ID of the system containing the feed to update.
feed_id string ID of the feed to update.
force bool If true, a full feed update will be performed even if the downloaded data is identical to the last update for this feed.

Response: UpdateFeedReply

Response payload for the update feed endpoint.

Field Type Description
feed_update FeedUpdate Information about the feed update that was performed.

Get scheduler status

GET /scheduler

Gets the status of the scheduler.

Request: GetSchedulerStatusRequest

Request payload for the get scheduler status endpoint.

No fields.

Response: GetSchedulerStatusReply

Response payload for the get scheduler status endpoint.

Field Type Description
feeds GetSchedulerStatusReply.FeedStatus Status for all feeds being updated by the scheduler.

GetSchedulerStatusReply.FeedStatus

Description of the status of one feed.

Field Type Description
system_id string ID of the system this feed belongs to.
feed_config FeedConfig Configuration of the feed as used by the scheduler. If Postgres is manually updated to change the feed configuration, this may be different what's in Postgres. The scheduler needs to be updated in this case. In general, however, the feed config here will match what's in Postgres.
last_successful_update int64 Unix timestamp of the last successful feed update.
last_finished_update int64 Unix timestamp of the last finished update.
currently_running bool Whether a feed update for this feed is currently running.

Reset scheduler

POST /scheduler

Performs a full restart of the scheduler, with all scheduler configurations retrieved fresh from the database. In general this endpoint should never be needed; Transiter automatically restarts the scheduler when needed. The main use-case is when the Postgres configuration is manually updated and the scheduler needs to see the update.

Request: ResetSchedulerRequest

Request payload for the reset scheduler endpoint.

No fields.

Response: ResetSchedulerReply

Response payload for the reset scheduler endpoint.

No fields.

Get the current log level.

GET /loglevel

Request: GetLogLevelRequest

Request payload for the get log level endpoint.

No fields.

Response: GetLogLevelReply

Response payload for the get log level endpoint.

Field Type Description
log_level LogLevel Current log level.

Set the log level.

PUT /loglevel

Request: SetLogLevelRequest

Request payload for the set log level endpoint.

Field Type Description
log_level LogLevel New log level.

Response: SetLogLevelReply

Response payload for the set log level endpoint.

No fields.

Types

FeedConfig

Configuration for a transit system data feed.

Field Type Description
id string Identifier of this feed config. This must be unique within the system.
type string The type of the feed. Allowable values are GTFS_STATIC, GTFS_REALTIME and NYCT_SUBWAY_CSV.

The are possible future plans to support plugging in additional custom types at build time. This is why the field is a string and not an enum.
parser string Deprecated: use type instead.
gtfs_realtime_options GtfsRealtimeOptions Additional options GTFS realtime feeds.
required_for_install bool Required for install specifies whether an update should be performed for this feed during system install. If true, an update is performed and if the update fails the installation fails.

If unspecified, defaults to false for GTFS realtime feeds and true for all other types of feeds.
scheduling_policy FeedConfig.SchedulingPolicy The scheduling policy to use for this feed.

If unspecified, it takes the value `DEFAULT``.
update_strategy FeedConfig.SchedulingPolicy Deprecated: use scheduling_policy instead.
periodic_update_period_ms int64 For feeds with a PERIODIC scheduling policy, the update period.

If unspecified, defaults to 5 seconds.
update_period_s double Deprecated: use periodic_update_period_ms instead.
daily_update_time string For feeds with a DAILY scheduling policy, the time of day in the form HH:MM at which to perform an update.

If unspecified, defaults to 03:00 for the first feed in the system, 03:10 for the second feed, and so on. The idea of the default is to run at night when the system is either quiet or not running. The staggering is to avoid updates stepping on each other, and to spread out the load.
daily_update_timezone string For feeds with a DAILY scheduling policy, the timezone for the time of day specified in the daily_update_time.

If empty, a default is provided as follows. The scheduler lists the agencies for the system in order of ID and uses the first valid timezone it finds. Given the GTFS static specification this should always work. Moreover, all agencies should have the same timezone so listing in order of ID shouldn't matter. But in reality it may not work. If there is no valid agency timezones, the scheduler will log a warning and fall back to UTC.
url string URL at which the feed can be downloaded using a HTTP GET request. Transiter does not currently support non-GET requests.
request_timeout_ms int64 Timeout to enforce for the request to the feed URL. If not specified, defaults to 5 seconds.
http_headers FeedConfig.HttpHeadersEntry HTTP headers to send in the request.
nyct_subway_options FeedConfig.NyctSubwayOptions Additional options for NYCT Subway feeds.

FeedConfig.HttpHeadersEntry

Field Type Description
key string
value string

FeedConfig.NyctSubwayOptions

Additional options for NYCT Subway CSV feeds.

Field Type Description
use_accessibility_info bool If true, infer the 'wheelchair_boarding' field from this feed.

Historically, this information is not set in the NYC Subway GTFS feed, but is included in the extended NYCT_SUBWAY_CSV feed.

To use the data from the CSV feed, set thie field to true on that feed and false on the GTFS static feed. If this field is not set on either feed, the GTFS static feed will be used.

Avoid setting this field to true on both feeds, as this will result in non-deterministic behavior, since feed updates are not guaranteed to be ordered after initial system installation.

FeedConfig.SchedulingPolicy

Transiter runs a background task called the scheduler which performs feed updates automatically. A scheduling policy determines when the scheduler will perform feed updates for this feed.

Name Number Description
DEFAULT 0 Use the default policy, which is PERIODIC for GTFS realtime feeds and DAILY for all other feeds.
PERIODIC 1 Perform an update periodically, with the period specified in the periodic_update_period_ms field.
DAILY 2 Perform an update once a day, with the time of day specified in the daily_update_time field.
NONE 3 Don't perform updates in the scheduler. Updates can always be triggered manually using the admin API.

FeedUpdate

Description of a feed update operation.

Field Type Description
update_id string ID of the feed update. This is a randomly generated UUID. It can be used to find server logs for the update operation.
feed_config FeedConfig The feed configuration that was used to perform the feed update.
started_at_ms int64 Unix timestamp of when the update started.
finished_at_ms int64 Unix timestamp of when the update finished. Only populated if the update is finished.
total_latency_ms int64 Total latency of the feed update, in milliseconds.
download_latency_ms int64 Latency of the HTTP request, in milliseconds.
parse_latency_ms int64 Latency of parsing the downloaded data, in milliseconds.
database_latency_ms int64 Latency of updating the database with the parsed data, in milliseconds.
download_http_status_code int32 Status code returned by the HTTP request.
status FeedUpdate.Status Status of the update.
content_length int32 Number of bytes in the downloaded feed data. Only populated if the update successfully downloaded data.
content_hash string Hash of the downloaded feed data. This is used to skip updates if the feed data hasn't changed. Only populated if the update successfully downloaded data.
error_message string Error message of the update. Only populated if the update finished in an error

FeedUpdate.Status

Status of a feed update.

Name Number Description
UNKNOWN 0 Unknown status.
RUNNING 1 Feed update is in progress. Currently this status never appears in the admin API, but is added in case Transiter support async feed updates in the future.
UPDATED 2 Finished successfully.
SKIPPED 3 The update was skipped because the downloaded data was identical to the data for the last successful update.
FAILED_DOWNLOAD_ERROR 4 Failed to download feed data.
FAILED_EMPTY_FEED 5 Feed data was empty.
FAILED_INVALID_FEED_CONFIG 6 The feed configuration is invalid. This typically indicates a bug in Transiter because the feed configuration is validated when the system is being installed.
FAILED_PARSE_ERROR 8 Failed to parse the feed data. This means the feed data was corrupted or otherwise invalid.
FAILED_UPDATE_ERROR 9 Failed to update the database using the new feed data. This typically indicates a bug in Transiter or a transient error connecting to the database.
FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR 10 An internal unspecified error occurred.
FAILED_UNKNOWN_FEED_TYPE 11 The feed has an unknown type.

GtfsRealtimeOptions

Message describing additional options for the GTFS realtime feeds.

Field Type Description
extension GtfsRealtimeOptions.Extension GTFS realtime extension to use.
nyct_trips_options GtfsRealtimeOptions.NyctTripsOptions Options for the NYCT trips extension. Ignored if the extension field is not NYCT_TRIPS.
nyct_alerts_options GtfsRealtimeOptions.NyctAlertsOptions Options for the NYCT alerts extension. Ignored if the extension field is not NYCT_ALERTS.
reassign_stop_sequences bool If true, stop sequences in the GTFS realtime feed data are ignored, and alternative stop sequences are generated and assigned by Transiter. This setting is designed for buggy GTFS realtime feeds in which stop sequences (incorrectly) change between updates. In many cases Transiter is able to generate stop sequences that are correct and stable across updates.

This should not be used for systems where a trip can call at the same stop multiple times.

GtfsRealtimeOptions.Extension

Supported GTFS realtime extensions.

Name Number Description
NO_EXTENSION 0
NYCT_TRIPS 1
NYCT_ALERTS 2

GtfsRealtimeOptions.NyctAlertsOptions

Options for the NYCT alerts extension.

Field Type Description
elevator_alerts_deduplication_policy GtfsRealtimeOptions.NyctAlertsOptions.ElevatorAlertsDeduplicationPolicy Deduplication policy for elevator alerts.
elevator_alerts_inform_using_station_ids bool If true, the stop IDs in alerts will always be converted to point to stations. E.g., if the alert is for the stop F20N (northbound F platform at Bergen St.) it will be transformed to be for stop F20 (Bergen St. station).
skip_timetabled_no_service_alerts bool When there are no trains running for a route due to the standard timetable (e.g., there are no C trains overnight), the MTA publishes an alert. Arguably this is not really an alert because this information is already in the timetable. If true, these alerts are skipped.
add_nyct_metadata bool The NYCT alerts extension contains many fields like "time alert created at" that don't map to fields in the standard GTFS realtime protobuf. If true, these fields are put in a json blob and included as an alert description.

GtfsRealtimeOptions.NyctAlertsOptions.ElevatorAlertsDeduplicationPolicy

Available deduplication policies for elevator alerts.

Name Number Description
NO_DEDUPLICATION 0
DEDUPLICATE_IN_STATION 1
DEDUPLICATE_IN_COMPLEX 2

GtfsRealtimeOptions.NyctTripsOptions

Options for the NYCT trips extension.

Field Type Description
filter_stale_unassigned_trips bool Filter out trips which are scheduled to run in the past but have no assigned trip and haven't started.
preserve_m_train_platforms_in_bushwick bool The raw MTA data has a bug in which the M train platforms are reported incorrectly for stations in Williamsburg and Bushwick that the M shares with the J train. In the raw data, M trains going towards the Williamsburg bridge stop at M11N, but J trains going towards the bridge stop at M11S. By default this extension fixes these platforms for the M train, so M11N becomes M11S. This fix can be disabled by setting this option to true.

LogLevel

Supported log levels in Transiter.

Name Number Description
INFO 0
DEBUG 1
WARN 2
ERROR 3

ServiceMapConfig

Description of the configuration for a collection of service maps.

Field Type Description
id string Identifier of this service maps config. This must be unique within the system.
source ServiceMapConfig.Source Source of the service maps built using this config.
threshold double The threshold setting is used to exclude one-off trip schedules from service maps. When calculating a service map, all trips are bucketed based on their schedule. If the threshold is 0.2, trips are only included if the corresponding bucket contains at least 20% of the trips. In particular, a one-off trip whose bucket only contains itself will be excluded if there are many other trips.

Note that a trip's schedule is reversed if needed based on the direction ID.
static_options ServiceMapConfig.StaticOptions Additional options relevant for static service maps only.

ServiceMapConfig.Source

Source describes the possible sources for service maps.

Name Number Description
STATIC 0 Build the service maps using the GTFS static data.
REALTIME 1 Build the service maps using the GTFS realtime data.

ServiceMapConfig.StaticOptions

Description of options relevant for static service maps only.

Field Type Description
starts_earlier_than double If specified, only include trips that start earlier than this time. The time is specified as a number of hours after midnight; i.e., 2:30am is '2.5'.
starts_later_than double If specified, only include trips that start later than this time.
ends_earlier_than double If specified, only include trips that end earlier than this time.
ends_later_than double If specified, only include trips that end later than this time.
days string If specified, only include trips which run on at least one of the provided days. If left empty, no trip filtering is provided.

SystemConfig

Configuration for a system.

Field Type Description
name string Name of the system.
feeds FeedConfig Configuration for the system's feeds.
service_maps ServiceMapConfig Configuration for the system's service maps.

YamlConfig

YamlConfig contains a Transiter system configuration in YAML format.

Field Type Description
content string The YAML content.
is_template bool Whether the config is a template. If true the config will first be processed using Go's template library.
template_args YamlConfig.TemplateArgsEntry Arguments to pass to Go's template library if the config is a template.

In general as much information as possible should be in the config itself. The template args are intended for things like API keys which are secret and/or different for each person that installs the system.

YamlConfig.TemplateArgsEntry

Field Type Description
key string
value string